Any of you who follow my projects here on Behance probably already KNOW what I did, for my vacation. A week (almost) at the cottage was the plan. We arrived Monday afternoon and stayed till Saturday morning. Monday evening, the rain started, and didn't let up until some time early Wednesday morning (also Canada Day).

However, once things cleared up, they stayed clear and we had three great days of sunny weather. I did not do any late night or pre-dawn photography this time around, but I still managed to get some decent photos around the resort (including the previous project, A Horse is a Horse, of course).

Almost 36 hours of rain, plus the obligatory road trips for food and such, left me pretty itchy to get out and shoot. Yes, I had brought my camera with me almost everywhere, and made some grab shots in places like Buckhorn and Bobcaygeon, but I needed some me time. Just me, my camera and tripod, walking around.

I don't know about you, but for me, time flies when I do this. I can spend an hour photographing thistles and not even realize the amount of time I've been in one place. It's a time for me to decompress, forget about everything else and just, well, be.

And I don't always make great images when I do this. Sometimes, sure, I'm really pleased with the results, other times, the important part is not so much the actual photos, but the disconnect from everything else. A mental vacation.

That said, the images you see here are ones I was pleased with. A couple panorama's of the resort area and some close up wok with my Sigma macro lens, along with some experimentations in black and white, and motion. I hope you enjoy.

Note: This series includes some iPhone images as well, processed in Instagram.

It's often funny, how arbitrary the camera can be. Your mind's eye sees a composition in the making, and you take the time to set the tripod, compose, expose and then . . . you end up with something lacklustre, to say the least. This was the case for this shot below. I saw the S-curve where the rough met the green, leading off to a view of the tee in the background. In my head, it was a very nice composition. But when I view the original image in Lightroom, my response was: "Meh."

In order for the image be anything but sub-par (see what I did there?), I had to use Lightroom to bring my vision to light. A couple radial filters, helped emphasize the curve that I had found so visually appealing in the first place.

There; that's my teaching momen for this project. ;-)

Full moon on the evening of Canada Day. ISO 5000, handheld.

Buckhorn

A running joke about Ontario's near north (the Muskokas, the Kawarthas) is that it's trees and rocks, as far as the eye can see. There was even a song wirtten about it. Add in lakes and rivers and you've pretty much covered the main subjects that make of the natural beauty of Ontario. and Buckhorn shows off aspects of this quite well.

Iphonography

Giboshihill Hostas

On the way home, we made a side trip to this specialty garden store, that claimed to have 14,000 varieties of hostas on site. It was very impressive and beautifully landscaped. According to the owner, it's been an on-going, 26-year project.

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